((OOC: I may have to change characters to help balance the group, so I'm not naming the thread after DOA. Hope I don't have to change, I kind of like her. Special Australia day public holiday game tomorrow, so that should be good (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ))

02/11/2070.

Arrived in Seattle. Sill feel ripped off, our smuggler charged us an arm and a leg for a cramped up cargo hold. Her nameís Elítelana, which I believe is the elvish word for ďPretentious poserĒ, and she drives a t-bird sheís dubbed the ĎFarothí. She insists it means ĎHunterí, but I believe the proper translation is ďIíve-trawled-the-lord-of-the-rings-wiki-for-cool-sounding-wordsĒ. In spite of all this she got us here in one piece and put us in contact with one of the local gangs. Not the ancients, in spite of her claims that sheís well connected with them, but thatís probably just as well. Have managed to secure a lease on an unoccupied basement in gang territory. Not fantastic, but it should be defensible and well hidden. Itíll do for now. Also got a lead on a street doc. Another elf, this one going by Celinia. Sheís a mage of some description which is never a good thing, but whatever. Hooking up with her to get some meds this afternoon, then I can get to setting up our new digs.

Trevor handled the trip fairly well, all things considered, but he really needs fresh meds and preferably a trip to a proper hospital. Iím going to need to get some work and buy him a decent SIN before that can happen, so I need to start getting my name out ASAP.

03/11/2070.

Iíve worked out why the gang was willing to let us have this place. Other than the simple fact itís an unfurnished basement it sits right on the edge of their DMZ with an orc gang calling themselves the Crimson Crush. This can only end wellÖ

Feeling a bit lethargic, still getting used to the new drugs. At least these ones probably arenít radioactive. Scavenged some old office furniture from an abandoned office the next street up and hit the jackpot with insulation, so thatís bedding and soundproofing taken care of. Iím going to need to source a space heater of some kind before winter hits in full, but I may have a lead on that. Rigged up some frag grenades as a nasty surprise for anyone trying to sneak in, just in case. I really should look into getting myself an autoturret or something to guard the place while Iím out.

05/11/2070.

Got a call from a fixer by the name of Jenkins. Not exactly sure on this guy, but I need the work so Iíll check it out.

06/11/2070.

Well that was a waste of my f***ing time. Okay, starts out fine. I turn up and the crew is a bunch of muscle. Thereís an orc ex-bodyguard, a farm-boy with a sword, and a troll who appears to specialize in punching stuff. So, the Johnson wants four drug dealers from the mafia assassinated, a human an orc and two trolls. No problem. Johnsonís offering 50 grand for the job, but I talk him up to 60. All routine stuff. At this point we get some more intel on the targets. Their stomping grounds are downtown. I havenít actually been to Seattleís downtown yet, but I hear that itís not a massive radioactive crater. Should be something of a novelty.

So the Johnson leaves and I start asking the group about their assets and talents, with an eye to planning this operation out. This is the point where we run into our first problem: Neither farm-boy nor bodyguard have a SIN, not even a fake one. Good luck getting out of Redmond without one of those, chummers. So now I ask if anyone has access to some way to hide us from the myriad cameras thatíll be sure to cover downtown. No joy. We toy with sending the two of us with SINs to try and backtrack the suppliers for these guys with an eye towards rigging their next shipment to explode, but we abandon that plan because of too many variables. So we call the Johnson and ask about him hiring a decker. He says yes, but itíll come out of our pay. At that point we politely tell him where he can shove it, and point out that he should have hired a decker as part of the team in the first place.

Not sure who to blame for this one, but Iím splitting it between the Johnson for not being clear with the fixer and the fixer for putting together a group that canít do much beyond fight.

16/11/2070.

Got another call from Jenkins at 10 pm, tells me thereís a meeting in an hour. Head out to find heís gathered together the same team as last time. The job is convoy escort duty going out to Boston. Well I need the cash, sure, but Iím not leaving Trevor alone for that long. Iíll find another way. The others look like theyíre good with the idea so I bid them good luck and head home. I doubt Iíll ever see them again, as two melee specialists and a guy with an SMG is not a good team to defend a moving convoy. I mean seriously, are we the only runners on this guyís roster or something? Maybe heís pissed at us for not doing the last job and trying to get us all killed, I donít know. Anyway, Iím betting I never hear from Jenkins again either. Good riddance.

Love the post, and story. Sounds like a very poorly balanced group though. Maybe the players should get together off-line and re-tool?

Well, the GM has forbidden me from making anything with magic or technomancy (I'm probably inventive enough with spells to be a game breaker with them...), and insisted I play something 'normal'. With no clear definition of normal given I just went for a sammie.

Two of the others are new players (the ones that had no SINs), and all three of them were put together by the third player, who was also covering for the GM while he finished his diving lessons for the day. We're going to have two more players in the group's regular sessions so that should even things out a bit, but I agree we're very muscle heavy. Not a problem, it just means that we'll need to try for jobs that use our talents to the fullest.

Well, the GM has forbidden me from making anything with magic or technomancy (I'm probably inventive enough with spells to be a game breaker with them...), and insisted I play something 'normal'. With no clear definition of normal given I just went for a sammie.

Well, the GM has forbidden me from making anything with magic or technomancy (I'm probably inventive enough with spells to be a game breaker with them...), and insisted I play something 'normal'. With no clear definition of normal given I just went for a sammie.

Wellllll.... he wants 'normal' eh?

Let's give him normal.

Make a Grrl Scout from Troop 7143 (Seattle Branch).

No cyber, no magic, no heavy weapons. Just a plaid skirt and knee-high socks, a disarming smile, several boxes of cookies, and a buttload of merit badges/skills.

A recent camping tragedy has wiped out the rest of the family and the brave lonely Grrl Scout is going to have to try and make ends meet while staying one step ahead of social services.

19/11/2070.Got a call from a new Johnson, a Miss Misa. Wants to run an assassination of some drug dealers, Vory this time, downtown again. Did the local drug dealers declare open war on the local shadowrunner community or something? Why does everyone want them dead. Couldnít make the meet because Trevor had a reaction to the insulation I found, so I had to join the job half-way through. Not a great first impression. Turns out that sheís hired the same guys that the other Johnson did, but this time included a bit of decker support and some fake SINs for the SINless into the bargain. Already I like her more than the other Mr J. I catch up and find out that the first two dealers are already dead, along with everyone around them. It looks like our ex-bodyguard type (Goes by the name of Deadbolt) has a passion for grenades which he shared with the first target, then took out the second by driving by him on the street and mowing him down with a machine pistol on full auto. Subtle. The drive-by also took out most of the guyís associates, but since weíre getting a bonus for that I can hardly complain.

Well Iím asked to strut my stuff for the next job. No problem. I smuggle my trusty Remington 100 rifle to the top of a building near the club the targetís at and wait. After half an hour he steps out and I put an APDS round through his forehead. Almost take out his bodyguard with the same shot, but the bastard was an orc and survived. Still, clean kill and I get away with no fuss, though farm boy (he wants us to call him Low-jack, but Farm boy has stuck) manages to nearly get mugged due to his incompetence at hiding. Next target is in another club. Iím assuming Misaís decker was working overtime to keep the pigs off our back, because they werenít giving us any trouble. Twice as surprising considering Farm boyís screw-up earlier. Iím asked to provide sniper support again, so up to the roof of another hotel and out with the Remington. My cyber-legís smuggling compartment is working double shifts tonight. Farm boy is sent to lurk out the back where he canít screw anything up.

Anyway, the others get impatient and decide to go in after the target. Jade (a MALE troll. I donít want to know.) gets tasked with flipping all the switches on the fuse box while Deadbolt goes in and takes the guy out in the ensuing confusion. Quick, clean, efficient. Naturally, it doesnít happen like that. Iím not sure of the details but grenades end up coming out again and the club needs a new top floor. No civilian casualties, but the property damage is pretty immense. Hopefully this doesnít become a regular thing. Anyway, Miss Misa is happy enough with the resulting carnage and we get paid, though I get some docked for being unavailable for the first half of the run. I get the impression this was more about putting a team together than the actual assassinations. Misa apparently has some kind of ĎRunner hotelí sheís setting up, but Iím not interested in communal living like that. Far too risky, and it doesnít cater to dependants. Pay is crap, but enough to live on for a while longer. Maybe I should try out some of this fast food stuff that seems so popular. It canít be worse than devil rat stew.

Next time I am so doing that.Skills AAttributes BMetatype CResources DMagic EI'd put Resources at E except, well, no magic. I wonder if my GM would let me take 2 E priorities...

Don't worry so much about resources D, I would suggest 1-2 months High Lifestyle to represent the house running for a bit while the estate is being sorted and the system takes over, then she is out on her backside if social services doesn't snag her first.

Throw in some expensive but only moderately useful stuff a typical teenager from a wealthy background would have and you can probably blow a good chunk of those resources right down. Maybe a moped or similar..

Miss Misa called again. Another job. Meet is downtown in a neo-gothic club called the Helfire club, which makes the business suit I blew some of my last paycheck on a bit of a waste. More money gets blown picking out a stupid outfit for this place, something black and horribly uncomfortable. My online research said that heavy makeup was the go too, so more money gone there and about an hour wasted on video tutorials learning how to use the stuff.

I take a cab and meet up with the others there (Note: I really need to learn to drive. Now that Iím somewhere that has roads that werenít nuked to hell a vehicle of some kind seems like a good way to travel). Deadbolt and Jade have made an effort to blend in, while whatever look Farm boy was going for failed. Badly. Miss M has highlighted some drinks on the menu so weíd order something that doesnít stand out too badly, but Farm boy has to go and order a pineapple juice. What is with him and pineapples? Miss M pranks him by changing his order with the kitchen staff, which apparently has something to do with something he pulled at the last meet. Itís all very immature, but Miss M has the money to pay us so what do I care? The cocktail I ordered arrives and I try it, but it lacks the punch of proper home-made booze. Iím still cautious with it, since I canít risk being impaired if Iím called upon to negotiate.

The job is to assault a Vory safe-house where theyíve stowed some girls en route to the Russian slave trade. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to considering the number of places thatíll pay top dollar with no questions asked in America, but maybe the motherland is running out of women or something. We get payed by the hostage, with bonuses for dead Vory and making sure KE canít miss the hidden dungeon when they turn up to check the place out. Weíre going to need to spray paint big arrows to the entrance with ĎSecret dungeon hereí written all over it, just to make sure they get the point. Miss M is willing to source us some gear and take it out of our pay, which is fine considering the time-frame weíre working with. Some Chameleon suits and a new gun for Deadbolt and weíre in business.

30/11-01/12/2070.

We decide on a midnight hit. The target building is in the middle of a large corn field pretending to be a farm house, so we sneak through the corn on foot in our new Thermal camouflage Chameleon suits. I peel off early to be sniper support from the edge of the property while the others sneak over to the garage to cut the power lines on the enemy vehicles and prevent them from escaping if they slip past us. A decker hired by Miss M takes out the cameras and stays in the system to kill any alarms. The doors are sealed by maglocks, but we brought the universal key: A troll with a crowbar. The others get inside the garage and I settle down to wait. Not long after someone wonders out to take a look and see why the doorís open (I found out later that Farm boy was last in and forgot to close it behind him), but I get called off from taking him out as Jade reckons he can ambush the guy and disappear him without arousing suspicion when he reaches the building. Just as the guy leaves my line of fire I hear an unsuppressed assault rifle firing full auto echoing through a tunnel of some sort. Turns out that there was a trap door beneath the garage and it lead to a tunnel guarded by an auto-turret, which Farm boy then went and triggered. Heís not answering comms so could be dead or pinned down, and at this point Iím pretty sure that the stealth part of the mission is over.

I stay put to provide sniper support as Jade and DB charge the main structure. Long story short frag grenades start flying so I pop jazz, switch to my HK 227 and move in to help. The fight is over by the time I reach there and we get a call from FB telling us that the last of the Vory have grabbed the hostages and are making for the cars.I sprint there and manage to arrive just as one of the Vory are getting into their car, so I put ten rounds into him. Itís just gel, but it puts him on his ass and he rolls under the car to get cover. I charge over and climb into the car, locking the door behind me and putting a burst into the passenger seat. Unfortunately the person in the passenger seat isnít another Vory thug but one of the hostages weíre here to rescue. Fortunately I had gel loaded for this very reason. Itís my own fault for going into a hostage situation while high, but the Vory were packing speed-ware so I had to do something to keep up. Anyway, with one hostage secure and one car locked down the other car starts and they reverse out of the garage. Apparently in the excitement of finding a secret passage step one of the plan, ĎCut the power lines in case the Vory make a break for their vehiclesí, slipped my co-runnerís minds. Iím working with people who canít follow a plan through to its first step. Well, the only way to go from here is up.FB manages to shoot himself by bouncing bullets off the armoured window of the Vory car, but then Jade through a couple of knives through the window and killed the driver. He was high as a kite on nitro at the time but even so I am seriously impressed. So the car with the other two hostages in it reverses out of control onto a corn field until I double-tap the engine with my sniper rifle. We rescue the other hostages, the last Vory guy removes himself from the gene pool by catching his gun on a grenade pin when he draws it to try and shoot us, and we get away to get paid. I ask Miss M to put me in contact with a shadow real estate dealer and she says she can find me a place if I give her the requirements. I list some stuff off, and she says sheíll give it a look. Iím not going to take her up on whatever she finds, but I need an idea of what I should be paying so I know if someoneís trying to rip me off.

... so the GM wouldn't even allow adepts because compared to mages, they are normal. Also does anyone in your team have any utility skills like B&E or First Aid at the very least?

3/4 of the team have first aid, between Deadbolt and DOA we've got a half-assed face, Farm boy is branching into decking, and Jade is an adept and our expert on all things magical (Jade is a conversion of an old character, so managed to slip passed the GM's no magic rule. Also, Jade's player was GMing for the start of the campaign when the regular GM was late). Jade is played by the same player as Sarah, Farm boy and Deadbolt are both new blood and got sams because they were the easiest to learn the system with. Shadow's player couldn't make the campaign start because it was his wedding anniversary, but will be back next week, while Seth's player is our GM.

Much as I bitch and moan I really am liking DOA so it's all good. After my girl scout I may ask the GM if he's had enough and is willing to let me play a mage (My girl scout, as an unaugmented mundane, is going to specialize in destroying obstacles which by all rights should be insurmountable. After that he should be glad of giving me mere magic to keep me distracted... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif) )

Also:Due to my character being somewhat peripheral to the action for much of this run I couldn't note this IC, but out of the 8 Vory thugs Jade killed 5, Deadbolt killed 2, and DOA killed 1. Jade is fricking badass!

Used the money from running to find a new home, a quiet out-of-the-way apartment in Renton. The neighborhood is nice, and there aren't any gun-fights breaking out in the middle of the night between rival gangs so all in all things are getting better. The whole place looks serene on the surface, but I'm not buying into that. I picked a house down an obscure back-road that used to belong to a reclusive orc, and I'm still trying to find all the booby traps he had set up. Getting in takes a key, a code, a card and an RFID chip, and on the inside the whole place is lined with ballistic plaster and sensors everywhere. There's even a small pistol range in the soundproofed basement.

In other words it's perfect.

03/12/2070.

There aren't any metahumans in the neighborhood. It's weird. Everyone seems too friendly and welcoming. There's something going on. Found a driving instructor, too. I got some odd looks with the cyberarm and never having driven before but he was patient enough and I'm quickly getting the hang of most of it.

05/12/2070.

Got a flyer from some social group called 'Renton's Revival'. Apparently they are inviting me to come along to one of their meetings. I figure I may as well, what harm could it do to get to know the neighbors?

08/12/2070.

Well that was a complete load of horse shit. Turns out the RR are just a club for meta-haters to go and drink before heading out to beat up metahumans. Why the hell would I want to get involved in that? People have enough problems without that load of assholes adding to them. Screw it, I don't care.

On a side note, need to change meds. Threw up blood this morning, my doctor said that my lung cancer was coming out of remission. Caps off a perfect day.

12/12/2070.

Got another call from Miss Misa. Met up at the same club as before, same stupid outfit as before. Corsets are fantastic when you're already having trouble breathing. The Vory are getting hit hard and are looking to take the market back with a massive gun shipment, and Miss M wants us to take as much of it out as possible. The payout looks good and we provisionally accept, but after a few hours of going over the intel we face up to the fact that the mission is well out of our league, and call her back to tell her that with the information she's provided we're not seeing any way we can get the job done.

14/12/2070.

Got another call from Miss M. She's located a warehouse where the shipment we didn't hit ended up and wants us to take it out before the product hits the market. We hold a planning session that lasts for a few hours, then head home to get some rest. We'll hit it tomorrow night. New drugs are working better and my lung cancer is back in remission, but it looks like the price is my hair starting to fall out. I may need to get that looked at.

15/12/2070.

So we're geared up and good to go. We've got a new guy along for this one, one Mr Shiny. He's a professional eliminator, whatever that means, but from what I can tell he uses something designed this century to kill things unlike about half of the team so he's bringing something new to the table. I'm on sniper duty again so I'm running my stealth suit while everyone else is kitted up for heavy fighting.

While we're on route to the target we get a call from Miss M. One of her contacts is under attack by the Vory and we're being diverted to pull her ass out of the fire. The pay is right so we change targets and move to intercept.

The Vory have 3 cars blocking in our target, all heavily armoured SUVs of some kind. We engage and things are initially rather bad, with farm-boy charging head-first into full auto fire and he gets shredded. Jade also takes some auto-fire to the back but unlike farmboy he just shrugs and continues on to the target. I start picking off their turret-mounted guns while Mr Shiny decapitates one guy with a mono-filament garrote then starts shooting the rest with his pistol. They decide to take cover and start lobbing grenades but he still manages to take one down. Meanwhile the cars decide to prove that ramming always works by driving full throttle down the street side by side. It turns out that driving full throttle is a lot harder when a sniper puts three rounds of APDS through your engine block, as I decide to demonstrate to one of the Vory drivers. We get the target to our car safely and so the inevitable high speed chase begins. Mr Shiny stabilizes Farm Boy while Jade tends to the package, leaving Deadbolt and I to deal with getting away. Of course having a large gunfight with grenades and turret mounted machine guns in the middle of my home neighborhood (yes, all this went down about two blocks from my front doorstep. I thought I'd left the gang violence behind!) kind of attracts the Knights. I pick off their pursuit drones fairly easily but then I spot an armoured pursuit car shadowing us a street over. Well there was no chance our bullet-ridden step-van was going to outrun a dedicated police pursuit car and lets face it those things are armoured up the wazoo, so I shot out the engine of the civilian sedan about a hundred meters ahead of it. Instant traffic jam, with the pigs stuck in the middle. That just leaves the Vory pursuit and a metric ton of drones. Whoever this chick is, someone wants her bad.

Long story short our employer has us lead the Vory through an ambush which costs us our car, but we then get a milspec helicopter ride out of the city with a couple of paramilitary types who don't talk much. Package gets delivered, we get told we'll get paid soon. I'm not impressed, but the big guys with heavy armour and assault rifle convince me to hold my tongue on that. Farm boy survived his ordeal and Jade makes a pass at the package, though I have serious doubts that he's her type.

18/12/2070.

We get called over to the Helfire club again and Miss M treats us to dinner and more importantly payment. Fifteen grand each, and Deadbolt's car is replaced on top of that. I hate this place with a passion, but I play nice for the Johnson. I've lost a noticeable amount of hair by this point but now I've finally been paid I might actually have a chance to do something about it.

19/12/2070.

Got a doc-wagon basic contract for Trevor. This way if anything happens when I'm out working then he'll get help quickly. Considered getting one for myself too, but right now I can't afford both it and some new gear I'm going to need. I called Elítelana to see if she could lay her hands on a Colt Inception for me, and now I'm heading out to hunt down a Krime Spree and some accessories. Plan is to load it up with a laser sight and tracers so I've got a Decker-proofed gun, should I ever need it. Also, I like the design.

Dara Odette Anderson was born to Patrick and Velma Anderson on the 18th of October, 2042. Working as a janitor at Truman Distribution Networks (a local company known for their work on the development of simsense) while his wife worked as a maid, the family never had much money to their names. They rented a small apartment near Shattergraves, not big enough for a starting family but the best they could afford. Daraís childhood was about as peaceful as youíd expect for a human kid growing up in a neighbourhood in the shadow of one of the biggest reminders of the night of rage in existence, and she learned fairly early on to fight with anything she could pick up, and to stay in after dark. When Shattergraves became ghoul central in 2053, well you can imagine what that would do to an 11-year-old. The local school was about as good as can be expected considering the district, not that the family could afford to keep sending her after Ares bought out TDN in 2055 and made her father redundant at the same time as her mother fell pregnant.

Then came August 23, 2055. The Universal Brotherhood revealed its true face to the world, and everyone knows the rest. All Dara really remembers of that fateful night was the family huddling in the laundry while her mother told her that everything would be alright. After thatÖ well, life within the cordon wasnít exactly paradise. The family scavenged what they could to survive, but as things worsened they had to travel farther and farther from home to find food, dodging bug, gangers and panicking civilians as they did so. On October 1st Patrick went to scavenge near Cermak power plant, heading out early to hide from the bugs. Shortly afterwards a nuclear bomb was detonated in that area, presumably by an Ares Firewatch team. Even considering the anomalous nature of the blast radiation soaked the containment zone. On the 29th of October Velma gave birth to a very sick baby boy, who she named Trevor. With her father missing and probably dead and her mother in no condition to support the family, Dara became their primary provider and defender.

By the time Ares launched Operation: Extermination in late February, 2058 all three members of the family were showing symptoms of radiation exposure. A visit to one of the few remaining doctors in the zone had revealed that Dara had bone cancer in most of her extremities, along with lung cancer and a small but growing tumour in her brain. Bartering with food she managed to get enough medication for herself and her family, though at the cost of several very lean weeks. It was worth it, as the meds sent the cancer into remissionÖ for as long as the medication would hold out. It was at this point that Ares showed up with heavy weapons and little compulsion about using them. Velma was hit by a stray shot from a drone, an APDS round punching through the wall and taking her in the leg while Dara was out scavenging. When she got back she found that her mother had bled out while she was gone.

After that, she survived however she could while still tending to her kid brother. Joined a gang, had that wiped out by roaches. Ran out of meds, lost a limb and had it replaced. Smuggling, thievery, violence, if it payed enough to eat and keep the cancer in check sheíd give it a crack. Of course, this kind of life rarely went by without injuries, the odd cracked rib or broken arm. Normally that would be bad enough, but when the broken bone is brittle with cancer and wonít heal in the conceivable future, itís better to lose the limb than lose your ability to work. Of course Cyberlimbs donít come cheap by any means, and every such injury cost the nest egg Dana had been saving up to get her brother and herself out of this hell-hole, often along with anything of value she could sell. Finally, at the end of October in 2070 Dara had enough saved up to get to SeattleÖ just. A smuggler by the name of Elítelana agreed to get her to Redmond and hook her up with a street doc, though the price tag for her and her brother was fairly staggering. Dara had to fence most of her few remaining possessions to afford the steep fee, but finally she was out of bug city. It couldnít be any worse in Seattle, right?

Before I begin this entry I should note that Elítelana came through for me and got me some new toys. I may have underestimated her. Specifically she got me a Yamaha Raiden (which I've pimped out with a bipod, a gas vent, a shock pad and a scope) and a Cavalier Falchion (because I needed a shotgun) along with a ton of ammo for each. As it turns out I needed it.

Okay, let's start at the top. We get a call from Miss Misa to come to the Helfire club for a meet, pretty standard stuff. Deadbolt is a bit late and Farm Boy is still supposed to be in hospital, so unsurprisingly he's a no-show. The job is to hunt down a bunch of other teams who've been doing some Decking that our employer disapproves of and get them to stop. I figure that a couple of headshots should be pretty convincing, but I'm open to just talking them out of it if the opportunity arises. Then we get interrupted as Farm Boy decides to rock up uninvited... and promptly gets stopped by the bouncers. Jade is sent to get him out of the club before he does something stupid, preferably getting him back to the street doc who he's somehow escaped. Anyway, we go to head out when a bunch of Cutters decide to stop us in what appears to be a poorly thought out kidnapping attempt. I taunt their leader for a bit in an effort to make them do something rash and he insults me back. Big deal. Jade on the other hand seems to be in a protective sort of mood and flattens the guy. I know a fight was inevitable, but I was hoping to force them to throw the first punch. Anyway these guys are so badly outclassed it isn't funny and 6 Cutters are on the floor in under three seconds, Half of them going down to Jade while the others found our non-trolls to be almost as deadly. Side note: I loathe fighting in heels. Good thing this place is compromised, we won't have to come back again.

Unfortunately and predictably the bouncers weren't too impressed with our antics and brought us to a room out the back to wait for Knight Errant. There's a reason I wanted them to throw the first punch Jade! Anyway we get a heads up from our employer that there are about half a dozen black vans full of Vory turning up to surround the place, and we had to get out now. Naturally we solved the problem the same way we solve every problem: telling Jade to punch something. One hole in the wall later the bouncers came in to find out what the hell was going on. One drew his gun, and from his expression I'm going to guess that he wasn't expecting me to be quicker on the draw, especially considering I wasn't supposed to be armed. Well I shot the gun out of his hand since he's just a guy doing his job, no need to hurt him, and we then proceeded to escape. Sort of. Misa had a rigger or the like on overwatch to provide sniper support and Deadbolt managed to hotwire the oldest vehicle I have ever seen (I think it was from the 1960 or something), thus we made our toxin-spewing getaway. The Vory shot the car to pieces with SMGs as we were leaving, so some poor sod who's spent a ton of money keeping his baby running is going to break down and cry when the cops return it to him.

Also, Jade decided to stay and party or something. I never did get a full explanation of what happened there but according to the news he led the goths in a charge that mosh-pitted a bunch of Vory enforcers to death. Then danced on their bodies just to make sure.

So we get a call from Misa. Apparently Farmboy has been talking to Jenkins, who sold us out. More on that later. We get tasked with bringing Farmboy and Jenkins in, no pay promised but considering how pissed the Vory are and Farmboy knows where Deadbolt and Jade live... yeah. Unsurprisingly Mr Shiny decided to sit this one out, what with it not concerning him at all and there being no pay on the horizon. So we get Farmboy by the simple means of having Jade invite him into a club and getting him smashed by spiking his pineapple juice. That was the easy part. We drop him off for Misa to interrogate, and head home to resupply and get a bit of shut-eye before we get our next target.

Jenkins decided that the best place to hide was in glow city. Joy. We track him down to a ruined neighborhood and search the area for any escape vehicles he may have hidden around. No joy, but a bunch of the local gang decided that 8 to 1 odds were enough to try and shake me down as I was leaving a potential hiding place. There wasn't a fight, they didn't live long enough for it to be called a fight. Anyway Jenkins is ready for us and has a submarine on a mine cart which he jumps into at the first sign of trouble and scoots off into a radioactive lake. Yeah, not following him into that. we regroup and Miss Misa locates a heavy convoy heading into Cutter territory, presumably to pick up Jenkins. By heavy convoy I mean 6 armoured cars full of thugs with mounted gun turrets, along with 12 escorting rotor drones packing belt-fed AKs. So while we're on route to get to Jenkins first we discuss plans. One suggestion was to drop Jade in a derelict multi-story building and have him punch out supports until the whole thing collapsed onto the convoy, thus keeping our string of 'solve all problems with Jade's fists' alive and well. In the end it was clear that there wasn't time for anything like that so we went for plan b: put a dozen frag grenades into the safehouse where Jenkins was hiding.

This was very effective. Unfortunately, the Vory convoy now blocked off the only road out of the area so we headed into the... forest? Plantation? whatever, it was a large stand of trees between one farm property and another. Jade and I start putting bullets and knives into the lead pursuing vehicle. It takes about half a mag of APDS to finally put the damn thing down but eventually it dies and acts as a road block to the rest of the cars and we get out onto another property.

It's at this point we realize that every last one of the hundreds of bullets the Vory had shot into our car was a tracker round, and there was no way to get them all. Through a combination of luck and... actually, pretty much just through luck none of the rounds had penetrated our body armour so we didn't have to cut any bullets out, but many were caught in our clothes. We'd just finished zapping them with our tag erasers when the drones turn up and we pop smoke and run for the tree line. The drones proceed to shred the car with full auto fire and eventually a lucky shot detonates one of Deadbolt's spare grenades, leading to the car no longer being there. That makes, what, two cars in two missions? More if you count the oldsmobile.

Anyway we call in a chopper ride from Misa (she can't afford to let us be captured or the Vory might be able to track her down again and are unlikely to be very happy) and start clearing the skies. We're able to take out the drones fairly effectively but then their cavalry arrives in the form of two more armoured cars. They tell us that if we surrender now we won't be tortured. Great motivation there guys, you should take up the lecture circuit as motivational speakers. Anyway, after we refuse their generous offer they put a couple of hundred rounds down-range in our general direction while we hunker down. They keep firing until a missile removes one of their cars from existence and we use the resulting distraction to return fire, taking out the four guys in the open just as the chopper cuts the last car in half with its minigun.

We escape and compare notes during the flight. It looks like Farmboy was feeling put upon and under appreciated so he went to Jenkins for a sympathetic ear. He blabs about pretty much everything in between moaning about not getting enough pineapple juice and every other petty complaint that popped into his head. It wasn't a malicious betrayal, merely some childish sulking. As far as we know Jenkins only told the Vory where we met, and was holding the rest of the information until he was payed. So now we have the question of what to do with Farmboy. As we land the guys are talking about shipping him off somewhere that he can't do any harm and are questioning whether it's worth the cost, but the question is moot since I walk over and put a round through his head. He may not have betrayed us intentionally, but I'm not putting myself and my family at risk for someone who'll sell us out for a pineapple juice and a sympathetic ear. It wasn't a nice thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.

Considering that it managed to render Miss Misa speechless I don't think that she saw it coming, either.

We sold the body to a street doc for some decent cash thanks to his 'ware and split his savings between us. It covered what we'd lost on the mission with a bit left over. Miss Misa also managed to get us a replacement vehicle, a Rover, and I split with Deadbolt for a concealed manual MMG turret (I bought the gun and ammo, he payed for the turret) so that we wouldn't have to open the back door every time we ran away from someone. It's basically a hatch on the top of the vehicle that unfolds a lightly armoured firepoint but it's better than what we're used to.

I also picked up an Azzie Striker Missile Launcher and some AV missiles, complements of our employer. I want an ace next time I find myself going up against an armoured Vory convoy, particularly considering how often it seems to happen.

So yes, big day. Killed a team mate in cold blood, used the blood money to buy new guns, probably coaxed my cancer out of remission with the visit to glow city... yeah, today sucked.

You killed off a PC for a poor choice in confidant? That's cold man, especially for a first timer.

How'd it play out at the table?

The player had decided he was going to use being near-mortally wounded last session to create a new character and had declared that he didn't care what happened to this one. He was also a no-show for the session, so at this point he was an NPC.

And yes it was cold, that was very much the point. OOC knowledge: the character was going to be quietly killed off by our employer no matter what we did, she just wasn't expecting one of the people he'd been running with to casually put a round through his brain... Well, through his head anyway, the consensus is that I missed the brain due to how small a target it was.

Since our old meeting place is no longer secure (YES! No more stupid Goth outfits!) Miss Misa had us meet up at a pub called the Moon and Six in lower down-town. The food's good, no special clothing is required, and no-one tried to kill us while we were there, so I'm calling this a step up. Not so much with the new team. We now have:

Kymrhyl: A dwarf thug with an axe-and-bow combo that would be more suited to a lord of the rings set than cyber-crime. Hard to be certain as he doesn't wear it on his sleeve but I'm pretty sure he's so augmented that the only thing he fears is magnets. Remember, I've got no natural limbs left and I think he's heavily augmented.

Zak: A troll rigger. Kinda on the weedy side for a troll, but still the biggest member of the group by a long way.

Kitty: An elf street-sam/anime cosplayer. Only other girl on the team, so hopefully she doesn't let the side down.

Mr Shiny: Our resident bad luck charm, a human hit-man. Seriously, we haven't even reached a mission since he's joined the team, and we've also lost a car a mission since he joined the team. This guy is walking bad karma.

Deadbolt: The best dressed orc in Seattle, and some flexible muscle to boot. doubles as team wheel-man, medic, demolitions expert, lock-breaker... he's not very good at any of it, but he's the best we've got.

The job is the one we didn't get to complete two days ago. Hunt down some Deckers and convince them to focus their efforts elsewhere, via applied lead poisoning if necessary. Well we talk it over and I get stuck with sniper overwatch again, which means I'm not going to be getting shot at unless things go really bad. I'm not complaining about that. I ask both Zak and Kitty if they want the sniper job instead but neither seems particularly enthused for it so I'm up. Five (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) says my contribution is completely ignored at the end. We are en route in Deadbolt's pimped out new rover right now, working out a plan. Basically Kymrhyl is going to try a pizza delivery scam on the target and when they open the door I snipe whoever answers over his head. Not a great plan, but the others seem convinced it'll work. We're maintaining radio silence for the whole mission because, well, Deckers.

23/12/2070. Supplemental.

That makes two in three days. Okay, let's take it from the top. The only part of the plan that went, well, as planned was me setting up a sniper position on the roof across from the target. No-one saw or heard me, Chameleon suit ensured that any cameras are only getting a blur if that. From there, everything went downhill. Place your bets on how bad this goes.While I'm busy getting into position the others speed off to get the pizza, except Zak who's theoretically getting his drone net up. That's the last we'll here of him for a while.So the others FINALLY get back, minus the pizza, and get to work... kind of. Mr Shiny starts going up the street towards the target looking like the sleaziest door to door salesman I've ever seen, though granted I've only been introduced to the concept in the last month or so. Still, he's at least 20% more sleazy than any of the assholes who've had the misfortune to end up on my doorstep. Deadbolt is no-where to be seen, probably waiting in the car in case we need an undeckable getaway. Kitty is loitering up the street a way. Finally we have Kymrhyl, who goes up to the target's house without a pizza... the entire reason they drove off in the first place... and encounters an insurmountable obstacle. A gate. So he gives up. I'm going to add at this point that he's left all his weapons in the car. So Mr Shiny goes up and tries his spiel, which works about as well as you'd expect. Then he moves on to the next house and tries there. Whatever he said worked as they let him in, tailed by our dwarf. Let's leave that for a moment as another situation is brewing.

Some guys start hitting on Kitty and she starts walking off with one of them. I watch through my scope because to be frank I am completely unprepared for this. I've worked with many runners of various skill sets over the years but I've never seen one try and ply their trade as a prostitute in the middle of a run. If I'd known then what I know now I'd have pulled the frekking trigger right then and there. Anyway, they head in to the house next to the one the dynamic duo have infiltrated. I switch to thermal and see the guy pulling the moves on her, then give myself a mental kick in the ass and get back to the job at hand.

It turns out that Mr Shiny was selling being tazed into unconsciousness, and both inhabitants had decided to buy into the plan. With them out of the way our dynamic duo climb to the roof and vault across to the target building. Mr Shiny lands light as a cat and begins creeping along while behind him Kymrhyl leaves dwarf-boot-sized dents in the roof. I'm still not sure how. Now maybe I'm just having a hard time focusing tonight but Kitty grabs my attention when a bunch of alarms go off in the house she's in. Deadbolt comes running out to investigate and I put a round through the bolt on the gate before turning back to the actual job. He can deal with the date-rape or whatever far better than I can with thermal and APDS. The events of tonight have made me institute a new policy: Shoot any team member who jeopardizes the mission. Through the head.So I turn my attention back to the job in time to see the dynamic duo enter the house. Mr Shiny sneaks in through a window, clean and quiet. Kymrhyl starts whistling the Indiana Jones theme and swings in on a gutter after him, bringing down all the guttering on his side and smashing the window into shards. All power is instantly cut to the top floor.

I provide sniper support in case anyone runs out the front door but the building is thermally shielded so that's about the limit of my contribution for the next two minutes or so until the others come back out carrying an unconscious Decker and a couple of HD screens for resale. The cops are on their way so we make a bee-line to Redmond. It's at this point that I notice Kitty is covered in blood. I ask her what the hell happened and she tries to feed me some BS about the guy trying to force her to drink some date-rape drugs so she defended herself. I put in a quick call to Zak to see if he has any footage to corroborate her story and get told no. It is at that point that I learned a really interesting fact about our new rigger: He can't lie for drek.

Before I can grill Kitty any further the back of the car is riddled with bullets. In the middle of a main road, during Christmas traffic. I have a pretty good idea by now about why we're being shot but first things first: I pop the new turret open and open up with the MMG on the police drones that're following us. I take down two while Kymrhyl takes down the other two with his bow. Why does no-one use modern weapons around here? Are they out of style or something? Anyway, I see two pursuit cars closing fast but decide that riddling them with machine gun fire on a crowded highway would just attract even more heat as it'd mean we're cop killers and that's a whole lot of trouble I have no need of. Trying to take out some civilian cars to cause a traffic pileup again is also out of the question: I'll try a stunt like that when using a precision rifle, but firing an MMG wildly at civilians is once again just asking for trouble. It doesn't take long for us to realize that we're not going to get away and our only option is to bail, so we pull into an alley and split up. Where was our rigger support through all this? Good question. Oh, and Deadbolt and Kitty are both all over the news with bounties and everything. Turns out that breaking into a house without wiping the security footage is bad. Killing the owner in cold blood and hiding his body in the bathroom is much worse.

Yeah. Kitty basically picked up that guy and went into his house so she could murder him, for kicks. I am not amused. She then lied to me about it. I am even less amused.

Well being outfitted for stealth already I make my way to the rendezvous, as does everyone else except for Kitty. This is a pity, as I'd switched to gel just so I could unload a full auto burst into her face when she rocked up. Our employer arrives and she's almost as angry at us as I am with her for saddling us with that psychopath. I'm putting the entire failure on her shoulders. It will not surprise you to hear that we get stiffed on half the payout for that part of the job (1 of 3 teams were disbanded. There is no way I'm going with this bunch to try and take on the other two)... but on the bright side we get Kitty's location. She's holed up nearby.

That makes two team members I've executed in three days. it's not a great habit.

The story doesn't end here. See during the meet Zak hands footage over to Miss Misa. Footage he swore to me he didn't have. I have nothing against trolls, I really don't, but I do have quite a lot against someone who'll lie to my face to cover for the psycho that almost got us all killed and lost the team yet another vehicle. I'm keeping a VERY close eye on Zak from now on and if necessary I will take him down. He's a troll in a tank. I have a rocket launcher with AV missiles. It's fairly even odds at this point.

So, to sum up:

Payout: After factoring in Kitty's 'ware resale we come out at 5 grand per surviving team member. Deadbolt lost a 55 grand car with a 7 grand mod, I lost an 8 grand gun and about a grand in ammo. In other words, we made a loss except for the POS rigger who sat in the van away from the action, bailed at the first sign of trouble, then lied to my face. That asshole made a profit. Also, that's a vehicle lost each run Mr Shiny's been involved in. Coincidence? I'm beginning to doubt it. He's an adept, maybe he's got some bad mojo or something.

Kitty: Two to the chest, one to the head. Cut the body up for parts.

Deadbolt: Going to ground as every cop in Seattle is still gunning for him, still has a bounty on his head as accessory to murder. Down his car and investment.

Zak: Worthless leech.

Kymrhyl: Badass.

Mr Shiny: The curse continues.

Miss Misa: Foists bad team members onto us, then blames us for the failed run and stiffs us on the pay. Better make it worth my while next time or I'm walking. Pulls a stunt like this again and she takes a bullet.

Me: Down almost 5 grand in investments and likely to not make the rent this month. Extremely unhappy.

Summary Summary: I like our dwarf. No-one else is worth the bullets it'd take to kill them, but the dwarf is good at what he does and doesn't screw everything up.

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